Great white shark tagging expedition said to be most ambitious in U.S. history

Imagine a world in which people can keep tabs on all of the large great white sharks that roam the world’s oceans.Lots more would be learned about apex predators that, by and large, remain mysterious.

While tht day may never come, scientists are getting closer, and this week a group called OCEARCH has announced that it will embark on the most ambitious tagging project in U.S. history.
OCEARCH, led by Chris Fischer and Greg Skomal, on Tuesday will embark on a month-long expedition off Cape Cod, during which it plans to capture, tag, and release as many as 20 great white sharksDuring the tagging process, a team of scientists will take samples and conduct other studies they say will help answer a lot of unknowns.

 

 It’s hoped that more knowledge will help scientists pursue greater protections in areas the sharks frequent.

On the West Coast, different scientists have determined that many adult white sharks that gather seasonally at seal rookeries off California and at Mexico’s Guadalupe Island venture to a vast featureless area each spring and summer. It’s not yet known why.
Off the East Coast, OCEARCH is learning that white sharks spend lots more time off the Southeast than previously believed. One shark shocked scientists, however, when it ventured far up the coast in the winter, at which time the water temperature was 38 degrees.
Fisher, who was interviewed on CBS about the project (video posted above), said that in order to obtain a clearer picture of where these sharks travel, a larger sample size is required.
Because white sharks are an embattled species around the world, scientists everywhere agree, more research and a greater understanding of their habits is needed.
Said Fischer: “They are the balance keeper, the lion of the ocean. There is no robust path forward for the ocean, without a robust path for their sharks. And we must understand their lives to be able to impact their future.


“This expedition brings together an amazing team of researchers with broad experience in multiple disciplines,” said Skomal, a senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “In doing so, we will be conducting over a dozen studies on white sharks, ranging from broad and fine scale migratory patterns to sonograms.
Our knowledge base on Atlantic white sharks will grow exponentially, helping both science and public safety.”Thanks to a permit issued by Massachusetts, the group will be working close to the Cape Cod coast, where 15,000 seals gather seasonally, attracting predatory white sharks. The expedition, funded largely by Caterpillar, will be aboard the 126-foot MV/OCEARCH.
OCEARCH, through its Shark Tracker website, is already monitoring the movements of 38 sharks worldwide. Among the handful that has already been tagged off the East Coast are Mary Lee and Lydia.
Mary Lee is a 3,500-pound female who was tagged last year, and scientists, students, and shark fans have plotted a course that extends as far north as Boston to her current position off Georgia.
Lydia is a 2,000-pound female who was tagged last March, and has since traveled eastward, far beyond Bermuda, as far north as Rhode Island, and is presently off the Southeast, like Mary Lee.At one point Lydia was right up along the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.
While the OCEARCH tagging program is somewhat controversial, because it entails bolting a large satellite SPOT tag to the predators’ dorsal fins, it is beginning to give scientists a better understanding of where these iconic sharks travel.

Musician JJ Cale dies; wrote Clapton, Skynyrd hits

If musicians were measured not by the number of records they sold but by the number of peers they influenced, JJ Cale would have been a towering figure in 1970s rock 'n' roll.
His best songs like "After Midnight,Cocaine and "Call Me the Breeze" were towering hits for other artists. Eric Clapton took "After Midnight" and Cocain and turned them into the kind of hard-party anthems that defined rock for a long period of time. And Lynyrd Skynyrd took the easy-shuffling "Breeze" and supercharged it with a three-guitar attack that made it a hit.
Cale, the singer-songwriter and producer known as the main architect of the Tulsa Sound, passed away Friday night at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, Calif. His manager, Mike Kappus, said Cale died of a heart attack. He was 74.While his best known songs remain in heavy rotation on the radio nearly 40 years later, most folks wouldn't be able to name Cale as their author. That was a role he had no problem with.
"No, it doesn't bother me, Cale said with a laugh in an interview posted on his website. "What's really nice is when you get a check in the mail.And the checks rolled in for decades. The list of artists who covered his music or cite him as a direct influence reads like a who's who of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame  Clapton, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Mark Knopfler, The Allman Brothers, Carlos Santana, Captain Beefheart and Bryan Ferry among many others.Young said in Jimmy McDonough's biography Shakey that Cale and Jimi Hendrix were the best guitar players he had ever heard. And in his recent memoir "Waging Heavy Peace, Young said Cale's "Crazy Mama his biggest hit, rising to No. 22 on the Billboard singles chart  was one of the five songs that most influenced him as a songwriter: "The song is true, simple, and direct, and the delivery is very natural. JJ's guitar playing is a huge influence on me. His touch is unspeakable
It was Clapton who forged the closest relationship with Cale. They were in sync musically and personally. Clapton also recorded Cale songs "Travelin' Light" and "I'll Make Love To You Anytime" and included the Cale composition "Angel" on his most recent album, "Old Sock." Other songs like "Layla" didn't involve Cale, but clearly owe him a debt. The two also collaborated together on "The Road to Escondido," which won the Grammy Award for best contemporary blues album in 2008.Clapton once told Vanity Fair that Cale was the living person he most admired, and Cale weighed the impact Clapton had on his life in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press: "I'd probably be selling shoes today if it wasn't for Eric."
That quote was typical of the always humble Cale. But while Clapton was already a star when he began mining Cale's catalog, there's no doubt the music they shared cemented his "Clapton is God" status and defined the second half of his career.
As hard as I've tried I've never really succeeded in getting a record to sound like him and that's what I want, Clapton said in a "Fast Focus" video interview to promote "Escondido.Before I go under the ground, I want to make a JJ Cale album with him at the helm.Clapton described Cale's music as a strange hybrid. It's not really blues, it's not really folk or country or rock 'n' roll. It's somewhere in the middle.Cale arrived at that intersection by birth. Born John Weldon Cale in Oklahoma City, he was raised in Tulsa. Buffeted by country and western on one side and the blues on the other, Oklahoma offered a melting pot of styles. Cale leaned on those styles as he spent his formative years in Los Angeles and Nashville, but he also used drum machines and often acted as his own producer, engineer and session player. He'd bury his own whispery vocals in the mix, causing the listener to lean in and focus.
" think it goes back to me being a recording mixer and engineer," Cale said in a 2009 biography on his website. "Because of all the technology now you can make music yourself and a lot of people are doing that now. I started out doing that a long time ago and I found when I did that I came up with a unique sound.Talbott reported from Nashville, Tenn. AP writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report.

Study Finds Only 28 Percent of Millionaires Think They're Rich

 If you had investments worth a million dollars, would you consider yourself rich? How about $5 million? Well, hold on to your wallet because a new study has found that the majority of millionaires don't consider themselves rich
According to a study from investment bank UBS, entitled "What is Wealthy?," 40 percent of those with $5 million in investable assets said they didn't feel they were rich. And only 28 percent of investors who had between $1 and $5 million in investable assets viewed themselves as rich.
"To us, the surprise was that that many people with $1 million or more did not consider themselves wealthy," said Emily Pachuta, head of investor insights at UBS Wealth Management Americas. "We think it shows a very interesting mindset shift. People have certainly experienced a shock from the volatility of the market, and they are very aware that it takes a significant amount of money to have that dual feeling of having enough money and no financial constraints.According to the opt-in, online survey of 4,450 Americans ages 25 plus with a minimum of at least $250,000 in investable assets (half with at least $1 million in investable assets), 50 percent of investors define wealth as "having no financial constraints on what they do." However, although the $5 million-plus investors are twice as likely to feel wealthy as investors with $1 million to $5 million in assets, only 64 percent of the former and 62 percent of the latter felt confident that they would achieve their goals.
If this outlook seems a little oddespecially when you consider that the median household income for May 2013 was $51,500 and the average 401(k) account has about $80,000experts are not especially surprised.
"It's shocking to those of us wo are not personally in that range, but it's not surprising when you take into the account the costs and expenses that are associated with people at that level of wealth," said Cliff Goldstein, a personal finance associate at Nerd Wallet, a cost comparison website.
Indeed, of those who have adult children, 80 percent said they are providing financial support for adult children, grandchildren or aging parents. "Unemployment, the economy and aging parents cause concern about the financial situation, he said.
David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of books including The Fine Print and Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else, said he wasn't surprised by the Poor-Me-Millionaires.
For starters, research has shown that many rich people are afraid they will lose it all. Secondly, wealth is relative, especially in a world that is trying to keep up with the Jones's (whoever they are).
"In New York City, being wealthy enough to own upright a property worth $5 million doesn't make you feel rich, because you're surrounded by people who can buy and sell you in a two hours income," he told ABC News. "There are always some people around you who have more. Also, having $5 million in Keokuk, Iowa, is a lot different than having $5 million in New York or Silicon Valley or Seattle."
What's more, he says, most people don't understand money. "Handling assets and understanding what they are is a skill very few people have," he said. To most people money is a stream and not a pool of assets."
One thing that does make investors feel confident is holding a significant amount of cash. According to UBS, despite significant market gains over the past year, investors keep an average of around 20 percent of their assets in cash, as they have for the past three years. Sixty-four percent feel they have the right amount of cash, and 56 percent expect to keep the same level of cash for the next 12 months.
Wealthy investors' two top personal finance concerns are long-term care and the finances of their children and grandchildren. While most feel highly prepared in their retirement planning (62 percent), 36 percent said they were not prepared at all.These people have a lot of money," said Goldstein. "But the reason they don't feel wealthy is because they don't feel like they have a comprehensive financial plan in place to take care of all of these longer-term costs.

Gone batty: David Ortiz ejected after arguing balls and strikes, destroys bullpen phone

Boston Red Sox designed hitter David Ortiz officially flipped his lid on Saturday night.
After striking out in the seventh inning against Jairo Asencio, Ortiz turned his attention to home plate umpire
Tim Timmons to argue a 3-0 strike call earlier in the at-bat. To Timmons' credit, he let Ortiz show him up by pointing to his helmet  indicating he felt the pitch in question was too high  and give him an earful all the way back to the dugout without reacting. In most cases, Ortiz's actions constitute an immediate ejection, but Timmons was willing to move on had he dropped his case peacefully.
Instead, Ortiz went bonkers and ended up smashing the bullpen phone in the visiting dugout at Camden Yards into smithereens with his bat (see: 1:22 in the video).
Ortiz's violent meltdown didn't really fall under the entertainment category. It was actually very dangerous and a little scary as shrapnel from the bat and phone flew all over the dugout. In fact, some of the shrapnel nearly took a chunk out of teammate Dustin Pedroia.

Woah. Easy there, big fella.
With the dust and particles now settled, I think it's safe to say a suspension will be coming Ortiz's way in the coming days. It probably won't be a lengthy ban, but it's a good time to send another reminder that such violent outbursts can't and won't be tolerated by Major League Baseball.
Fortunately for the Red Sox, a suspension is the only thing they have to worry about right now. That's a much better outcome than setting a timetable for Pedroia's return had one of those pieces of shrapnel found its way into his eye.

2nd body found in NY river where best man fell in

PIERMONT, N.Y. (AP) A day after a bride-to-be was pulled dead from the Hudson River, the body of her fiance's best man was found a mile downstream Sunday, the second victim of a nighttime crash involving a
speedboat and a barge north of New York City.The deadly collision left the groom-to-be grieving for his intended and his best friend, while facing surgery for his own injuries as another friend is charged with manslaughter  two weeks before the wedding day.I don't think you can put words to what we have to tell these families, Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said as he announced that a body believed to be that of Mark Lennon 30 the best man, was found Sunday morning.

At the church where Lindsey Stewart and Brian Bond, both 30, would have been married Aug. 10, the pastor said their lives "were filled with hopes and dreams, and that has been snuffed away."
Stewart, Bond, Lennon and three others were on a speedboat that crashed Friday night into a barge holding equipment for the construction of a replacement for the Tappan Zee.The group had left the village of Piermont for a short trip aboard the 21-foot Stingray across the river to Tarrytown, about 30 miles north of New York City, authorities said.Police said it was being piloted by Jojo John, 35, of Nyack, whom they suspect was intoxicated and who has been charged with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault.
Stewart and Lennon were thrown off the boat. When the bodies were found, they did not have life vests on, said Sheriff's Department Chief William Barbera.Bond, John and two others, whose names have not been made public because they are witnesses, were injured and hospitalized.One of the witnsses has been released from the hospital, Falco said Sunday. Mitchell Turk, a friend of Bond's family, said Bond would be undergoing surgery on Monday.Turk, of Orangetown, said he visited with Bond's mother on Sunday at her Pearl River home.It's sad and quiet there, long faces, he said. "They're trying to carry on, doing as well as can be expected. I'm a little shaken. When you think of what they've lost, a daughter-in-law, Brian injured, it's tough.Turk's daughter, Sheryl Palacio, said she has known Bond, an art teacher, all her life.
"He's an outstanding teacher, a wonderful, kind, respectful man," she said.
She said Lennon was Bond's best friend and John was "his other best friend." She described the suspect as a good man, happy and loving."She said John "would never, ever want to put his friends in danger."I just hope Brian is able to move past this," she added.
It was not clear if John had an attorney. Falco said a mug shot of John released Sunday was from a previous arrest but he would not elaborate.
At Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Pearl River, where Stewart and Bond had planned to get married, the Rev. John Havrilla said he remembered them as children. He told The Journal News that Stewart, who worked for an insurance company, was an important part of the congregation.Her loss, and the wedding, just makes this even more of a heartache," he said.Falco said the body believed to be Lennon's was discovered by a person on a recreational watercraft who then called 911. Twelve search boats were on the water at the time. The county medical examiner will have to officially identify both bodies but police feel sure they are Stewart's and Lennon's.

The sheriff said the barge's lighting would be part of the investigation of the crash. Authorities have said the barge was equipped with lights, but it was still difficult to see on the water late at night.
A spokesman for the $3.9 billion bridge project said the barges were properly lit Friday night, but lighting has since been added.We will determine if those barges were lit properly and if it was a factor  Falco said.
Pre-construction work related to the new bridge was suspended for the weekend but is to resume Monday.